The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-06-30
MUNICIPAL CRIME.
How DR.. Talmage Proposes to De-
crease 1t.

A Filthy City Always a Wicked City-The
Newspapers of Place Test of It's Nor
aIity-Compulsory Education Advocated.
BROOKLYN, June 19.-This morning at
the Tabernacle the Rev. L. De Witt Tai
mage read, previous to the sermon, por-
tions Of Scripture descriptive of ancient
cities and gave out the hymn:
Fields are white, the harvest waiting;
Who viii bear the sheeves awayP
His text was, sand the men of the city
said unto Elisha, Behold, 1 pray thee, the
situation of this city is pleasant, as my
Lord seeth; but the water is naught, and
the ground barren. And he said, Bring me
new cruise, and put salt therein. And
they brought it TO him. And he went
forth unto the spring of the waters, and
cast the salt in there, and said, thus said
the Lord. I have healed these waters;
there shall not be from thence any more
death or barren land. So the waters were
healed unto this day." IL. Kings ii, 1922.
DIR. Talmage said: 1t is difficult to esti-
mate how much of the prosperity and
health of a city are dependent upon good
water. The time when through well laid
pipes and from safe reservoir an abun lance
of water from Croton or Ridgewood or
Schuylkill brought into the city is approG
priately celebrated with grafton and pyro-
technic display. Thank God every day
for clear, bright, beautiful sparkling water
as it drops in the shower or losses up in
the fountain OF rushes out of the hydrant.
The city of Jericho, Notwithstanding all
its physical and commercial advantages,
was lacking in this important element.
There was enough water, but it was dis
eased, and the people were crying out by
reason thereof. Elisha, the prophet, comes
to the rescue. He say: sect me a new
cruise; fill it with salt and bring it to me.
So the cruise of salt was brought to the
prophet, and | see him walking out to the
general reservoir, and he takes that salt
and throws it into the reservoir, and 10!
all the impurities depart, through SUPER
natural and divine influence, and the waters
are good and fresh and clear, and all the
people clap their hands and lift up their
faces in the gladness. Water for Jericho
clear, bright, beautiful, God given
water.
AT different times I have pointed out to
you the fountains Of municipal corruption,
and this morning l propose to show you
what are the means for the rectifcation of
those fountains. There are four or five
kinds Of salt that have q cleansing ten
dency. So far as God may help me,
shall bring cruise of salt TO he work, and
empty it into the great reservoir of munic-
ipal crime, sin and shame, ignorance and
abomination.
in this work of cleansing our cities,
have first to remark that there is q work
for the broom and the shovel that nothing
else can do. There always has been an
intimate connection between iniquity and
dirt. The filthy parts of the great cities
are always the most iniquitous parts. The
cutters and the pavements of the Fourth
ward, New York, illustrate and symbolic
the character of the people in the Fourth
ward.
The first thing that bad man does
when he is converted is thoroughly to wash
himself. There were, this morning, on the
way to the different churches, thousands
of men in proper apparel who, before their
conversion, were unfit in their Sabbath
dress. When on the Sabbath 1 see q man
uncleanly in his dress, my suspicious in
regard to his moral character are aroused,
and they are always we'll founded. So as
to allow no excuse for lack of ablution,
God has cleft the continents with rivers
and lakes, and has sunk five great oceans,
and all the world ought to be clean. Away,
then, with the dirt from our cities, not only
because the physical health needs an ablu-
ton, but because all the great moral and
religious interests of the cities demand it
as positive necessity. A filthy city al
ways has been and always will be q wicked
city.
Through The upturntng of the earth fol
greet improvement our city could not be
expected TO lie MS clean rs usual but for
the illini able dirt o. Brooklyn for the
last six months there is no excuse. 1t is
not merely mater of dust in the eyes,
and mud for the shoes, and of stencil for
the nostrils, but of morals for the soul.
Another corrective influence that we
would bring to bear upon the evils of our
great cities is n Christian printing press.
The newspapers of any place are the test
of its morality or immortality. The news
boy who runs along the streets with roll
of papers under hi arm is tremendous
force that cannot be turned aside nor re-
sisted, and at his every step the city is
elevated or degraded. This hungry, all
devouring American mind must have
something to read, and upon editors and
authors and book ublishers and parents
and teachers rests the responsibility OF
what they shall read. Almost every man
you meet has book in his hand or q
newspaper in his pocket. What book is it
you have in your hand? What newspaper
Is 1t you have in your pocketP Ministers
may preach, reformers may plan, philan-
thropists may toll for the elevation of the
suffering and the criminal, but until oil the
newspapers Of the land and all the book
sellers of the land set themselves against
On iniquitous literature-until then we
shall be fighting against fearful odds.
4ha oyvlsN ~
publishing houses turn they make the
earth quake. From them goes forth o
thought like an angel Of light to feed and
bless the world, or like ON angel Of dark
aess to smite it with corruption and sin
and shame and DEATH May God by His
omnipotent spirit purify and elevate the
American printing pressl
go on further and say we must depend
upon the school for great deal Of correct
ing influence. A community can no more
afford to have ignorant men in its midst
than il can afford to have uncaged hyenas.
Ignorance is the mother of hydra headed
crime. Thirty one per cent. of all the
criminals of New York State can neither
read nor write. Intellectual darkness is
generally the precursor of moral darkness.
/ know there are educated outlaws-men
who, through their sharpness of intellect,
are made more dangerous. They use their
fine penmanship in signing other peoples
names, and their science in ingenious
burgIaries, and their fine manners in
adroit libertinism. They go their round of
Bin with well-cut apparel, and dangling
jewelry, and watches Of eighteen karats,
and kid gloves. They are refined, edu-
Gated, magnificent villains. But that is the
exception. It is generally the case that the
criminal classes are as ignorant as they are
wicked. For the proof of what l say, go
into the prisons and the penitentiaries, and
look upon the men and women incarcer-
ated. The dishonesty in the eye, the low
passion in the lip, are not more conspicu-
Gus than the ignorance i'll the forehead.
The ignorant classes are always the danger